Anyone who has built and launched a website has likely encountered an oft-repeated acronym: SEO (search engine optimization). And while you might not have ever done SEO yourself, you've benefited from it in the past: Every day, search engines like Google employ complex algorithms to sift through more than 400 billion web pages and deliver the most relevant results.
Website owners like you use SEO techniques and strategies to get their websites to the top of the search results for relevant user queries. But SEO is not a one-time endeavor — Google and other search engines change often, and ongoing SEO ensures your website stays in front of the people you want to reach. Just as a physical storefront requires regular maintenance and updates to stay competitive, your website needs ongoing SEO to remain visible amidst the ever-changing digital landscape.
The ABCs of SEO: What is Ongoing SEO and Why Does It Matter?
Don't let the techy jargon intimidate you. HubSpot — considered one of the gold standards for SEO and digital marketing advice — defines SEO as simply a collection of strategies and tips that "expand a company’s visibility in organic search results'' and help "drive more visitors to the company’s website, increasing their chances for more conversions which leads to more customers and more revenue."
SEO Connects the Search Engine Algorithms With Your Website's Content
Regardless of your website's goal or industry niche, all SEO techniques have one thing in common: They look at ways to optimize your website's content, keywords, and links to help search engines rank your website higher in the search results when someone searches for something related to your keywords, content, or brand name.
According to HubSpot, SEO needs to address the key factors that all search engines use to determine the value of your website's content — and therefore how high in the search results your website or specific landing page should appear:
- The intent or meaning behind why someone is searching for a specific term or question
- The relevance between what someone searches for, and the content on your website
- The quality of your content (for instance, a website about physical exercise written by certified personal trainers is deemed by Google to be higher quality than a website where the articles are written by non-experts)
- The performance of your website, such as how long it takes a page to load and whether it works well on mobile devices
Static SEO Versus Ongoing SEO: Why It Matters to Stay Fresh and Keep Your SEO Updates Current
As users' web behavior changes and technology evolves, search engines proactively adjust their algorithms.
If you aren't conducting ongoing SEO maintenance and upgrades, a well-optimized website today can quickly become obsolete tomorrow, causing your search rankings to drop and attracting fewer organic visitors. Google itself updates its algorithms several thousand times per year, including significant "major" changes every few months that dramatically change how it crawls and ranks content. For example, Google's infamous Panda update changed how it ranked how-to lifestyle content on the Internet, causing one major content publisher to lose a whopping $6.4 million of traffic and advertising nearly overnight.
How Ongoing SEO Influences Your Website Strategy
Staying abreast of changes to SEO techniques and strategies provides important guidance to your content, marketing, and overarching website strategy. For example, it can dictate or influence:
- How much content you publish, and the content's format, length, and focus
- How you incorporate other forms of media on your website, including images, video, and audio
- How you organize content on your site, including landing page layouts and your site's navigation
- What keywords and target users your website focuses on
Embrace the Power of Ongoing SEO
Caroline Forsey, an expert in thought leadership and marketing content, looked at the survey results from more than 400 of the world's leading web analysts to predict the biggest SEO trends of 2024. According to her data, some of the top changes in SEO strategies this year include:
- A heavier emphasis on expertise, meaning the content on your website should come from experts in your related field (including bylines and author bios that demonstrate the author's credentials and experience on the topic they're writing about)
- A renewed emphasis on first-person, credible content, especially as more websites generate high volumes of low-quality AI content (Google itself has announced upcoming changes to tackle low-value articles created by AI)
- A priority on websites that are deemed trustworthy, such as e-commerce sites with well-rated customer service, or content sites that do a good job of citing trustworthy research and statistics
- Bonus points on content that is creative and original and doesn't simply rehash content found on other sites
Of course, these SEO trends will inevitably change every year, and ongoing SEO will keep you competitive no matter what Google, Bing, and other search engines do. No matter your website's industry or content strategy, ongoing SEO requires that you:
- Focus on keeping your content fresh and high quality, including new blog posts or regularly refreshing and updating old product descriptions or articles
- Conduct keyword research often, since the terms or phrases that your core audience uses will evolve over time
- Maintain your website's overarching performance, such as mobile-friendliness as mobile devices evolve, and page load speed
- Build a diverse portfolio of high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites within your niche, which may include outreach campaigns, getting others in your industry to write guest blogs, and participating in online forums or communities
- Keep on top of technical and performance metrics, such as scanning your site for broken links (and fixing the links you uncover) and using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track organic traffic, keyword rankings, click-through rates, and conversion rates
- Stay on top of algorithm changes so you can adapt your SEO strategy in real-time
Some website owners think of SEO as the first step of their promotional strategy. But it's less a first step, and more an ongoing journey to ensure you, your brand, and your content stay relevant in such a competitive atmosphere. Whether you choose to go it alone and take a DIY approach to SEO, or you choose to consult with a digital marketing and SEO agency, check in often and make sure your SEO evolves as the world around you evolves.
Here are a few things you can do to help increase your 2022 sales.
1. Focus On Current Customers
Acquiring new customers is essential to your company's growth, but focusing on retaining your current customers while enticing them to spend more with your organization helps make the most of your marketing budget.
Research shows that onboarding brand new customers costs five times more than keeping the customers already using your services. Excellent customer service is key to harnessing the power of positive reviews, but 60 - 80% of customers may never make another purchase in the absence of consistent marketing to keep your services top-of-mind.
Your current customers may provide an additional powerful marketing tool, as well. Positive reviews and word-of-mouth can help you bring in new customers while simultaneously increasing your average order value (AOV).
Your company can leverage the loyalty of your current customer base by focusing on retention rates. Increasing your customer retention rates by 5% could increase profits by 25% to 95%.
2. Use Strategic Marketing To Increase Sales
Your marketing plan should reflect your company's new sales goals, and using your funds and resources strategically can help you get the most value for your marketing dollar.
One of the most effective ways to increase the perceived value of your services is to use digital marketing to connect with your current customers. One recent study shows that you may be able to make a significant impact on your future sales by leveraging these common marketing tactics:
How Marketers Use Online Channels
Customer Retention
- Mobile Messaging (text marketing) : 58%
- Email: 52%
- Mobile Apps: 44%
- Social Media Marketing: 28%
Customer Acquisition:
- Paid Search: 86%
- Online Display Advertising: 85%
- SEO (Natural Search): 66%
- Web Retargeting: 61%
3. Improve Internal Sales Processes
The sales force is a powerful marketing tool for many service-providing organizations. A salesperson's primary focus is building relationships with current and potential customers. Their day-to-day interactions with prospects and how they leverage your organization's technology contribute to the success of the salesforce. Customer relationship management (CRM) training can empower your salespeople through technology as they work toward their individual and team annual sales goals. When their utilization of the tool expands and increases, they can better manage their accounts and territories.
CRM training can help salespeople make the most of their tools and skills. Even experienced salespeople are life-long learners, and additional training can help support the efforts of a critical division of your company.
4. Leverage The Power Of Marketing Automation
Another way to improve internal sales processes while creating a more effective and efficient plan is by utilizing modern marketing automation tactics. Following up with and nurturing prospects throughout their buying journey is key to supporting a salesperson's efforts. Acquiring new customers is no easy task. When your company plans to provide automated support, salespeople no longer have to spend precious time handling mundane yet necessary tasks.
5. Focus On Customer Service
Happy customers fuel an organization's growth, and your company's customer service practices support client satisfaction. Current customers who encounter minor problems form their opinion about your organization as a whole and decide whether to become repeat customers based on their interaction with your customer service and sales teams. A fast response that provides a satisfactory result supports a customer's decision to do business with your company again. Formerly dissatisfied clients who experience excellent customer service are likely to tell their friends and colleagues the story.
Customer perceptions improve when you respond to their complaints and resolve the problem in an open forum like an online review site.
Here's how responding (or not responding) to reviews could affect your company's sales during the coming year:
- Nearly half of customers say they are more likely to do business with a company that responds quickly to negative reviews.
- 94% of consumers admit that they've avoided a business due to a bad review.
- 63% of consumers who've left a bad review online for a business say they never received a response.
- More than half of consumers say they expect a response from a business after they leave a bad review.
Review sites like Yelp, Facebook, and Google provide your customers with a platform to air their grievances. In many cases, customers do not contact a company directly before telling their story online. For this reason, it's crucial to monitor online review sites and respond quickly to both negative and positive reviews.